School on Pine Street in New York

Pine Street School: A Community That Reaches the World

Lauren Angarola vividly remembers the moment the incoming first-grade class of Pine Street High School students demonstrated that they were developing into a caring and inclusive young community. At the end of the 2022-2023 school year, the school’s fifth graders—many of whom had started school at age 2—took their first overnight field trip to Washington, D.C. Angarola, Pine Street Middle School’s coordinator and director of innovation, watched in awe as the children took turns comforting a fellow student who was grappling with her feelings for the first time, far from home in a strange city.

It was, Angarola realized, the culmination of countless intentional and unintentional efforts by Pine Street’s leaders to build a caring, inclusive community throughout the school’s existence. And it reaffirmed the soundness of her decision to leave a much larger, more traditional school abroad to join Pine Street’s leadership team.

Pine Street is a bilingual immersion school offering programs in Spanish and Mandarin. Located at 25 Pine Street in Manhattan’s Financial District, Pine Street opened in 2014. Fully licensed as an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) institution, Pine Street offers childcare programs for one- and two-year-olds, preschool for ages 3 and 4, elementary school for preschool through grade 5, and now in its second year, middle school for grades 6 through 8. The school’s first eighth-grade class will begin in the 2025-2026 school year.

Students who attend Pine Street benefit from development and growth within a research-based curriculum that focuses on self-agency and self-learning. It is, says Gaby Rowe, CEO of KSS Immersion Schools, the parent company of Green Ivy Schools, “an exceptionally rigorous way to teach kids how to learn to be learners.”

“The International Baccalaureate, which is the curriculum foundation for a network of more than 7,000 schools worldwide, provides a central framework for Pine Street,” Rowe says, “containing six units of inquiry that students explore with greater understanding each year. Those units of inquiry cover everything from the nature of self; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships; rights and responsibilities; and orientation in place and time. What’s more, they can ask these meaningful questions while having access to all that the world capital has to offer.”

Throughout its history, Pine Street has emphasized community building within the school environment and in the larger world. Far from being “shut off” from the larger community, Pine Street is located in the heart of New York’s original village, just off Wall Street and within easy walking distance of some of the world’s most recognizable landmarks.

The classroom structure itself is unique, with an interior space that is spacious and filled with light. The walls in the elementary school are adjustable, making the space flexible for students to interact across grade levels and academic disciplines. The school uses the latest innovations to help students develop technological literacy while expanding their critical thinking skills. As a result, Pine Street has proudly been recognized as an Apple Distinguished School for its emphasis on student agency, independence, and action through the use of Apple Technology.

Students are also aware of their role in the global community and learn to take responsible action in the face of the world’s challenges. They learn to believe that their actions can reverse global warming and create a healthier, more sustainable world. To that end, students traveled to Costa Rica toward the end of the 2023-2024 school year to participate in a coral restoration project. Students met with scientists and divers to learn more about this vital part of the world’s ecosystem.

Being part of a global community is also an important part of a school that includes families from as many different national, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds as Pine Street. That’s why the school hosts an “international night” each month, so families can enjoy the food and learn about the traditions of the many nationalities and cultures represented in the student body. They also host regular chats so everyone knows they are seen and heard.

Amy Rogers, president of the Pine Street PTA, says programs like this ensure that “no one feels left out and no one feels like their culture is being belittled or neglected in any way.” Rogers, a parent with two children in the school and an 8-month-old who would be joining them, says, “We felt part of the community from the very beginning.”

For Anna Rita Pergolizzi-Wentworth, principal at Pine Street, welcoming parents into an inclusive community is at the heart of the school’s mission. “We recognize that our families come from all over the world with different cultural practices, holidays, dress and traditions, so we constantly ask ourselves, ‘What does respect mean, on a student level and for our parents.’ Our goal is to make sure that all voices are heard, but that we come together as one family, one community.”

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